Woolmer’s future could yet involve role with England
By Ivo Tennant
Our correspondent says the innovative coach of Pakistan has big plans for extending and improving training facilities
BOB WOOLMER, who could yet be approached to succeed Duncan Fletcher as the England coach, is examining the possibility of developing state-of-the-art academies in both the Middle East and South Africa. His prospective business partners are being shown around Lord’s during the first Test match and will move on to study the facilities at the National Academy in Loughborough and at Edgbaston.
Woolmer has been given no intimation by the Pakistan Cricket Board whether he will be offered new terms when his contract expires after the World Cup next year. Although Pakistan have won their past three Test series, it will not assess his future until the tournament is over.
He is aware, too, that with each passing year — he was 58 this summer — younger candidates will be mooted for the position of England coach, which he was originally approached about before Fletcher in 1999.
A group of prominent South African businessmen is looking to raise more than £5 million with a view to designing academies at The Lowfeld, near Kruger Park, and in Oman, Abu Dhabi and Dubai. Woolmer, whose home is in Cape Town, would coach in them, as would Jonty Rhodes, the former South Africa batsman. “The recent deaths of great friends and old cricketing colleagues like Eddie Barlow and Brian Luckhurst have made me realise the necessity of passing on our knowledge as a legacy,” Woolmer said. “Although I have spent only 60 days at home in the last 18 months, I shall definitely stay in coaching.
“A dream of mine is that, in the same way that Jack Nicklaus and Nick Faldo have designed their own golf courses, I should build state-of-the-art academies which all manner of cricketers could use for coaching, team-building and pre-season training.
“I want to introduce the kind of facilities and holistic education which would make a difference to their game. Each academy would be divided into five or six specific areas for improving skills.
“These would include rotating platforms from which the ball is snicked to fielders, a batting cage based on baseball for practising specific shots and nets with machines, which roll balls back as occurs in bowling alleys. There would also be aquarobics.
“A top cricketer can now play 12 Tests, some of them back to back, and 40 one-day internationals a year, and it is those one-day matches that will kill him if he is not fully fit. There is cricket fitness and fitness for cricket,” Woolmer said.
Keith Fletcher, an England colleague of Woolmer’s and a former England coach, is but one person who would like to see him take over from Duncan Fletcher after the World Cup. “Bob bubbles over with enthusiasm for the game and obviously has made a difference to Pakistan,” he said. “Players will respond to him because of his enthusiasm, knowledge and the fact that he is a genuine person and fascinated by the game. He has a pleasant personality and, because of that, will forge better relationships with administrators than Duncan has done.”
A Western outlook and temperament is now regarded as a help, not a hindrance, to a coach on the sub-continent. Woolmer has proved this in his two years with Pakistan, uniting talented players and giving them ample scope for prayers five times a day.
Similarly, Tom Moody and Greg Chappell have brought the perspective of outsiders to coaching Sri Lanka and India. Moody, the Australian who oversaw Sri Lanka’s achievements in England this summer, drawing the Test series and gaining a 5-0 triumph in the limited-overs series, will be considered another strong candidate to succeed Fletcher.
SOURCE: http://www.timesonline.co.uk/article/0,426-2273392,00.html
